Intercomparison of aerosol optical depth measurements in the UVB using Brewer spectrophotometers and a Li-Cor spectrophotometer

The first Iberian UV radiation intercomparison was held at "El Arenosillo"- Huelva station of the Institute Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespatial (INTA) from September 1 to 10, 1999. During this campaign, seven Brewer spectrophotometers and one Li-Cor spectrophotometers measured the total column aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 306, 310, 313.5, 316.75 and 320 nm. The BOD calibration of one Brewers was transferred to all other Brewers using one day of intensive measurements. The remaining days were used to observe the stability and reproducibility of the AOD measurements by the different instruments. All Brewer spectrophotometers agreed to within an AOD of 0.03 during the whole measurement campaign. The differences in AOD between the Li-Cor spectrophotometer and the Brewer spectrophotometers were between -0.07 and +0.02 at 313.5, 316.75, and 320 nm. This investigation demonstrates the possibility of using the existing worldwide Brewer network as a global UV aerosol network for AOD monitoring.